Mark Willems

From 2013 to 2018, Mark Willems disrupted the hospitality and events market with the tsjing app. In the pre-corona era the app allowed visitors of the hippest hospitality venues such as Bocadero in Antwerp and festivals like Tomorrowland and Paradise City to order and pay drinks and food in the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately tsjing ceased to exist in 2018. A big blow for the team. They failed to convince the right investors to invest the right amount in due time. It is impossible to build and grow a tech startup like tsjing without a substantial amount of funding... so sadly end of story, especially in retrospect.

Entrepreneurship is sometimes compared to a rollercoaster. In Mark's case nothing could be further from the truth. In the initial phase, he was forced to say goodbye to two co-founders and this void needed to be filled quickly. The first version of tsjing was built with more blood, sweat and tears than money. The team was forced to make drastic adjustments several times, such as with the official introduction of the white cash register. An illegally recorded and distributed video of a tsjing employee practicing public indecency went around the world with disastrous consequences for the team and the company.. But hey, entrepreneurship comes with rising and falling!

After tsjing, Mark succesfully launched Jellow, the freelance platform, in Belgium. And then came Corona... the market crashed and there was not enough capital to absorb this setback.

Since then, Mark decided to deploy his extensive commercial excellence knowledge and experience on a freelance basis. He helps all kinds of companies to achieve better commercial results, he regularly teaches international business students from Thomas More University and he also advises several start-ups at start-up accelerator Startit@KBC.